ERC Amos Honored for Horn of Africa action

At the Save the Children-supported Mobile Health and Nutrition Emergency Programme screening in Bisle kebele, Shinile zone, ERC Amos met pastoralist communities who have not seen rain in 18 months. Malnutrition is increasing. Credit: Courtesy of Jiro Ose (c)

At an event Monday 19 September, Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos was honoured along with WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran by the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) for Safe Motherhood, for their ‘outstanding efforts during the Horn of Africa hunger crisis.

The award was presented by Ted Turner at the Women, Inspiration, Enterprise (WIE) Symposium. At the event, ERC Amos spoke of the resilience of millions of people in crisis situations around the world. She stressed that it is on behalf of them that the humanitarian community is working.

OCHA has been responding to the drought-crisis in the Horn of Africa crisis, which has left more than 13 million people across the region in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance since last year. Among other actives helping coordinate humanitarian action on the ground, spearheading access negotiation to try to reach the most vulnerable, leading high-level advocacy on the crisis aimed at garnering international support and running a public awareness campaign.

At the event, Ms Sheeran paid tribute to the work of ERC Valerie Amos saying that: “She plays a very important role with the World Food Programme and also within the humanitarian space. […] I’ve seen Valerie negotiate with the toughest people in the world on behalf - mainly of the women and children who are trapped in these zones and their right to live and their right to get protection and service that the world will provide.”